Liquid Mirror
by Ceu Praca
Summary: An account of Link and Dark Link's duel, written from Dark's POV. Rated for blood, violence, creepiness, and numerous mentions of death and killing. This is NOT part of the Dragon Series.


Disclaimer: Link, Dark Link, the Water Temple, the reflection room, the Master Sword, and anything else recognizable belongs solely to Nintendo. Unfortunately. :P

A/N1: This is written in present tense. It's from Dark Link's POV. Warning: there is violence, blood, and creepiness. I in no way support Dark's views on things. I just wrote this for fun. This is also a oneshot. I may eventually write this again, only from Link's POV. If you guys see ANY errors whatsoever, point them out kindly and respectfully. And by 'errors' I mean spelling and grammatical errors. Any storyline content I did intentionally. This somewhat non-canon. Then again, 98 percent of all fanfiction is non-canonical, as far as I've seen. XD

A/N2: The cover art for this story was created by TixieLix of deviantART. It belongs solely to her, and must never be used without her permission. There are also moments and scenes in this book that were inspired by her artwork of Dark, especially the 'You want this back?' moment. That is actually the title of the illustration for this story. :D Thank you, TixieLix! :o)

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**Hyrule will fall. It is only a matter of time...**

The master. He calls himself Ganondorf, King of the Gerudos. I call him an idiot. I owe him a debt, unfortunately, seeing as he is the one who freed me from my sacrosanct prison. So to repay this debt, I obey his commands. For now. The moment my debt is repaid, I will thank him with the blade of my sword. A man as foolish as he has no right to continue to draw breath. I have been enjoying the task he gave me, though.

The Water Temple. Created and sanctified by the Zoras. Defiled my me. I have enjoyed filling these sacred rooms with the vilest of creatures, desecrating the walls with the blood of the fish-people. Killing the Zora princess, Ruto, was also satisfactory. It is not polluting the temple that gives me the most satisfaction, however. It is knowing what is to come.

I stand in the reflection room, laughing inwardly at the irony of it all as I stand in the center, waiting. Soon, he will come. He has been making his way slowly, yet steadily, through the temple halls, destroying all foes that I had set in his path. I put them there for my sake, not his. I can feel their pain and taste their blood as he puts an end to them with the sacred Master Sword. For this is what I live on.

Fear. Grief. Horror. Anguish. Turmoil. Unrest. Revulsion. Suffering. Pain. Distress. And…hatred. Oh, how I love hatred. It feeds me, fills me, drives me to create more of it. I will make him feel hatred before the end, as well as all of those other unpleasant emotions. Ah…unpleasantness. Foul. Horrid. Dreadful. Appalling. And so badly _good_.

He is drawing nearer. My other side. My _light_ side. Me. I am drawing nearer, and I will be killed by _me_. No other shall pierce his flesh, taste his blood. Only I, him, his shadow. He is me, and I am he. Oh, how similar we are to each other. And yet…so different. He is standing on the other side of the door now.

I think that I will make him taste confusion first. He will run in circles, trapped and helpless, before I force my hatred into him. Hyrule's perfect light, their only hope of salvation. And he will be extinguished as easily as a candle. He will feel the bitter sting of hopelessness before I am through with him.

The door opens. He steps through. There is no danger of him seeing me; I have already vanished. And there he is, childlike and full of light. I will _end_ him. I watch as he frowns, that much-loved expression of uncertainty crossing his features as he steps forward, coming right at me. Of course, he can't really see me, and as he circles the tree, studying it, I catch a glint of light peering out from beneath his pointed, green hat. A fairy. I hate fairies. Beings of pure light, incorruptible. I now have two objectives. Destroy the hero, and obliterate the fairy.

When he finds nothing on the tree, he heads toward the other door, but all of his efforts to break through the locked, iron bars are in vain. He is trapped in this reflection room, trapped and just waiting for me to end him. Not that he knew that yet, of course.

I make my appearance, leaning casually against the lone tree, my sword still sheathed, my shield still strapped to my back. Seemingly harmless. Outwardly peaceful. Deception in its purest form. I am still unaware of my presence. Not for long. He will soon realize that he cannot leave this room.

He veers to the left, where there is outwardly no appearance of a wall. Open water, marred only by a large boulder protruding from the reflective surface of the liquid mirror. I restrain a laugh as he walks right into the wall, invisible as it was. Again, he shows confusion, reaching out and pressing his hand against the bare stone that appeared to be naught but thin air.

I follow his movements as he slowly paces the entire room, inspecting all four walls. I also glimpse the faintest glimmer of panic in his eyes when he realizes that there is no way out. Then he turns and squints in my direction, his eyes searching. Good. He's seen me. I stay motionless as he creeps closer.

He stops when he is about three feet away, looking highly confused, and I hear the fairy jabbering something softly as he frowns. "Who are you?" he asks, his voice strong and clear.

I hate his voice. I straighten and push off slightly from the tree, taking three steps forward so that I stand almost nose-to-nose with him. "I am you. You are me. Light. Dark. Dark and light. You. Me. Me and you. You are not me, I am not you, yet I am you and you are me. Solve that little riddle if you can…_Link_."

He looks taken aback, but I sense that he doesn't dare move. How could he? He knows as much as I do that he is trapped. Retreating would do him no good. Instead, he unsheathes the Master Sword and holds it to my throat, his sapphire eyes fierce. "_What_ are you?" he demands crossly. "How do you know my name?"

_Anger. Good. _I smile, baring my sharp fangs at him savagely. "I already told you that. Solve my little puzzle and you will know."

He presses the sword against me tighter. "Answer me directly! What is your name?"

"But I already told you that, Link. I am you. You are me. We share the same name. You are Light and I am Dark."

"Are you keeping the sage from awakening?"

"No, no, I am not, but I am."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I _placed _the barrier to contain the sage. I do not _keep_ the barrier." I feel the pressure of the blade increase ever so slightly, and I know that he means to kill me now. I bring my hand up to grab the Master Sword. The sacred blade cuts deep, and I relish the pain as I grip the front of the hero's shirt in my other hand, holding him tightly. He winces, and I see a trickle of blood running down his right hand. I grin. "You shouldn't be worrying about the barrier, Link. You will never see it. It is beyond your concern."

His free hand connects solidly to my face, and I am forced backward, seeing the blackened eye that is already forming on him. He staggers slightly, blatantly surprised. "That's impossible!"

"I have told you twice already, Link, I _am_ you. You cannot kill me without delivering the death-blow to yourself," I inform him semi-honestly. I unsheathe my blade and advance, slinging my shield over one arm and smirking at him. "Come kill me, if you are truly that desperate to end your life."

Uncertainty flashes across his features for the briefest moment before he growls and lunges, stabbing at my heart. I jump upward, balancing delicately on the flat of his blade. He looks up at me in surprise, and I laugh, backflipping and slashing at his legs, slicing through the skin just above the knees. He grunts, and I enjoy the fiery pain as I feel blood trickling down my own legs.

"So this never ends? We just keep beating at each other until we both die?"

"I would welcome it. Go right head," I invite. "If you kill me, then you die, and if I kill you, then you die. Either way, Hyrule dies."

"You have some kind of vendetta against Hyrule?"

"You fight _for_ Hyrule, so I fight _against _it. We are the same, but we are opposite. You are trying to kill Ganondorf. I will aid him in destroying Hyrule, and then _I_ will be the one to end his life."

"So you just kill everything in your path then, is that it?"

"Precisely," I reply with another grin. "Only I prefer to make them…_cry_ before I finish the deed."

"You are pure evil," he hisses, coming at me with the Master Sword once more. I make no move to counter the blow, and he strikes, the blade biting deep into my left shoulder.

We both drop our swords in unison as he yells in pain, and I begin laughing again, reveling in the blood that flows from our wounds. Unlike him, I can heal myself with a single thought, but I decide to remain crippled for now. It would make my victory far sweeter. "Of course I am. You are good, I am bad. Light and Dark, remember? Go on, finish it. I _dare_ you."

He picks up the Master Sword in his other hand, discarding his shield, and I smirk, dropping to one knee and holding up my uninjured arm in surrender. He sets the tip of the blade against my heart, and I feel the stabbing as the tip penetrates my skin, then…he hesitates. I growl, leaning forward slightly to push the blade in further, but he quickly draws it back.

"If I stab you now, we both die," he states confidently. "I choose to let you live."

I shrug and stand, healing my wounds, and he freezes in horror. I smile wickedly. "Well…if you insist…" I rush at him again, bulling into him and throwing us both onto the ground; I grab him, one-handed, by the throat, pressing his head down firmly as I rip his blade from him.

"Impossible…the Master Sword cannot be touched by evil," he gasped, choking.

I shrug again, hefting the blade easily before spinning it to hold the dangerous end firmly to his neck. "Really? Maybe the sword is confused and can't tell the difference between you and me," I taunt.

He growls furiously, writhing beneath me, and I laugh, releasing him and doing a backflip to stand with my back against the lone tree. He gets to his feet quickly, enraged, and clenches both hands into fists, despite his bleeding shoulder. "You defile it!"

"Yes. That's what I do best. Desecrate the sacred." I swing the blade experimentally. It isn't different from my own sword in the slightest bit, unsurprisingly. Link takes a step forward, and I trail one hand along the edge of the Master Sword teasingly, smirking. "You want this back?"

He looked dejected. "Can't we just put an end to this? It's clear that neither of us will win."

"That's where you're wrong, Link," I reply with a smile. "You see, one of my many talents is the art of deception. This very room you stand in is a fabrication of my will. I also tend to lie a lot."

He roars in fury, snatching up my own blade and hammering at me furiously with it, but I block each blow, letting him tire himself. Then I simply flick the Master Sword against the other blade once, and my sword disintegrates and reappears in my free hand. I now held both weapons, and he is effectively disarmed.

"Where did you come from?" he demands.

"I was birthed at the same time you were. I am your dark side, your antithesis. I was imprisoned shortly after our birth, but that fool, Ganondorf, freed me. I can now do what I want, unrestrained."

It works; he looks horrified now, and I backflip again and meld into the reflection pool, reappearing behind him to stab through his other shoulder. He screams, dropping to his knees, and I slice both sides of his face, healing my wounds that appear as a result. Abruptly, that accursed fairy flies out of his hat and hovers in front of me, blinding me with its light. "You evil, wicked thing! Leave him alone!"

"You annoy me," I tell it, capturing it in a bottle. "For that reason alone, you will watch as your master dies. I can assure you both that it will not be painless."

"No…" Link struggles to stand, and I kick him, causing him to roll onto his side.

I grin and casually stab his sleeve with my sword to pin him, holding the blade of the Master Sword to his chest. "They say that light always conquers dark…the legend doesn't seem accurate."

"That…" he gasps. "that's where you…you don't get it."

"Please, do tell."

"We are equal in sword skills," he grunts. "Perhaps you are even better. But…I…I have something you don't."

"And what would that be?" I coolly inquire.

"Light!" he shouts, just as an enormous wave of fire erupts from him, enveloping me and driving me back.

I roar, doing my best to heal my wounds even as the flames burn me, and I find myself suddenly flat on my back with Link standing above me, holding the Master Sword in his hands. I growl as he pins me with one foot, and he sighs wearily, a troubled look in his eyes. I realize now that, even though he has won our little game, I, too, in a way, have won. This event would haunt him forever.

I chuckle painfully, choking on my own blood, and Link shudders, bringing the sword down with one, mighty blow. I smile just before the blade pierces my heart, Link's scream echoing in my ears as I felt myself falling into shadow once more.

Then I open my eyes. I lie in a pool of bloodstained water, still in the reflection room, but Link is gone. I have died, but I still live. He is unaware of this. I smile faintly. _If only you knew, my brother. My light side. We are one, whether you like it or not. If I die, you die. You can never kill me without first killing yourself._ I grunt, sitting up slowly and healing my wounds.

I begin to laugh, shattering the illusion of the reflection room as I stroll nonchalantly out from the place where I and my other half had fought. I would find him again…one day. _Fire. Din's Fire. I will remember that trick…for the next time...brother._

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A/N: Aw, dang, there'll be a next time! :D I seriously was getting chills up my spine as I wrote this. Dark's story does indeed continue after this oneshot, though. XD He's actually pretty cool, for an evil dude.


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